Boo.

Tonight we had a skeleton (with a broken arm!), a ballerina, Voldemort, and Princess Genevieve visit our home. This photo would make a great cover for that Mars and Venus book, wouldn't it?

By the way, keep your candy away from Sophie--she only has four teeth, and all of them are sweet. She totally thinks she's a big kid, and it's adorable. (Check out those thighs under the tutu!)

Overheard

Emma: Why do I have to eat all my dinner?
Ginger: So you get adequate nutrition.
Emma: I don't like "adequate nutrition." It makes me too tired.

Trick or treaters beware.

We're ready.

Lincoln and Mimi stayed with us this weekend

Here's photographic proof:

I think Emma had the most fun of all, playing with Mimi every waking moment.

Lincoln got invited to IU to interview for dental school, and they practically begged him to start right then and there. "No," he insisted, "I must return to my physiology classes in Provo."

This is what guilty looks like

Ginger made some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to take with us to FHE at our friends' house tonight. Shortly before we left, she put them by the back door so we wouldn't forget them.

As we were getting ready to leave, I discovered Sophie sitting on the floor, cookies (plural) in hand, with this guilty look on her face. Notice the incriminating ring of pumpkin and chocolate around her mouth, and the opened package of cookies in the background.

Totally busted.

Overheard

Two stories about our little Emma...

#1

Emma (after some contemplation): Force fields aren't really real.
Me: Yep, that's right.
Emma: Because Abby hurt me even though I have a force field. (Abby is a 6 year old daughter of some friends.)
Me: How did she hurt you?
Emma: She broke through my force field.

#2

On Saturday night at around midnight, I was standing in our master bathroom brushing my teeth. All of a sudden, Emma stumbled into the bathroom, rubbing her eyes, and walked right past me into our closet. Was she sleepwalking? I followed her into the closet, where she walked to a pile of clothes, turned around, and started to pull down her underwear as if she was going to use some nonexistent toilet. I quickly picked her up and ran her to the toilet, narrowly averting disaster.

I'm just glad I was still awake and in the bathroom. Next time we may not be so lucky.

So here's the story

The kids like it when I lie on my back and hold them up in the air with my feet. Well, Ethan and I thought it would be fun if we took it up a notch. So he climbed up my legs and stood on top of my feet, like we were Chinese acrobats. He got scared and jumped, landing face down on the floor in a weird way.

He didn't cry, but he kind of did a muffled whimper into the carpet. When I got to him I could tell something was wrong. Ginger and I turned him over and he popped his head up and said "I need a DRINK!" That was weird.

He could move his arm just fine, although he was definitely in pain. No bones were sticking out or anything, so we got him a drink of water and assumed he'd be okay after a few minutes. But his arm was not working quite right and he asked if he could go to bed early. Also weird.

In the middle of the night I heard moans coming from his room. I went to his bed and asked him if he was okay. "No, not really." Poor little dude.

Fortunately, the next morning he already had a doctor's appointment scheduled to take care of his cough (the beginnings of bronchial pneumonia). They took x-rays, and sure enough, his elbow was broken.

Ouch. Everytime I say "broken elbow" I cringe.

He'll wear the cast for three weeks, after which we'll certainly have it bronzed and hung above the mantel.

Pa broke his exact same elbow when he was exactly the same age, 50 or so years ago. Ethan thought that was cool.

Despite his cough he desperately wanted to go to school today so he could show off his cast. He didn't use the bathroom all day at school for fear that he wouldn't be able to snap his pants back together. FYI--he can snap his pants--he tried when he got home.

Spooky-ooky

Emma and I had a pumpkin carving date last night at the preschool. We carved a pumpkin, ate donut holes and Emma sang songs with her class. Emma drew the face on her pumpkin all by herself, and we had fun carving it together.

Poor Ethan...

He has bronchial pneumonia AND a broken elbow.

He's doing okay. We'll post more photos and info tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a cell phone photo I took of him at the hospital while he was waiting to get a cast put on his arm. He'll get to show off the cast for three weeks.

Happy birthday Sophie!

Here she was 364 days ago:

We are so blessed to have her. As Ethan was saying the other day, we would not laugh nearly as much around here without little Sophie.

Birthday girl

She's not officially 1 yet, but we celebrated tonight with Bamma and Pa in town.

Sophie knew immediately what to do with her cake.


Update: Check out poor Sophie desperately trying to grab the cake while we paused to take a photo of it.

Sophie has perfected her camera smile

I hold out the camera, and this is what she does.

It reminds me of this:

Same face, different haircut.

A photo story

We have an old digital camera that we let the kids use whenever they want. Every once in a while I will upload the photos to the computer and be surprised by the results. This time there was a series a photos about a recent Godzilla rampage through our house.


Here he is emerging from his lair.


He quickly dispatches a T-Rex.

Uh oh. Pikachu attacks.

The resulting carnage.


Should we be worried or proud? I'm not sure.

Bugs

Andrew went on a photo safari in the backyard today. Check out the results here.

The results are in

Our family had a blind taste test tonight between Goose Island Root Beer and Frostop Root Beer, two Midwest root beer brands. Goose Island was favored to win, but lost in a landslide.

Too bad, because we can't buy Frostop in Indiana. Until we try some more of these, Frostop will remain the champ. But only in memory, until we find a source.

And yes, we take our vices seriously around here. (Although root beer isn't quite the obsession that ice cream is.)

skype

Everyone needs to get skype. Emma wants to talk to you.

If you already have it, let us know so Emma can give you a call.

Is Elliott an appropriate name for a girl?

No.

Just thought I'd answer that one again for those of you who found this blog by googling "girl named elliot." Ever since this post, I have been getting a lot of hits that way.

The answer is no, it is not an appropriate name for a girl. Just like Sarah would not be an appropriate name for a boy, and "cute" would not be an appropriate name for androgynous naming trends.

A small concert